Richard W. Judy, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Workforce Development, in Indianapolis, Indiana, cites several institutional factors contributing to Europe's sloth: generous unemployment insurance, a regulatory burden that discourages hiring, easier retirement rules and tax rates that reduce incentives.

FORBES: Europe's real problem

Mohammed, Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on Post-2015 Development Planning and Assistant Secretary-General, and Professor W. John Morgan, UNESCO Chair at the University of Nottingham.

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Before we answer this, one needs to revisit the American Economic Historian W.W. Rostow who in the sixties had suggested that countries passed through 5 stages of economic development as Traditional Society, Transitional Stage, Take-off, Drive to Maturity and High Mass Consumption.

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